Who Is It For?

'70s Flashcards Preview

The lead singer of post-punk pioneers Joy Division. He committed suicide in 1980.

Ian Curtis

2

The guitarist for Joy Division and later frontman for New Order.

Bernard Sumner

3

What answer fills in the blank in the title of a Brian Eno-produced new wave album from the late 1970s? Q: Are We Not Men? A: _______!

We Are Devo

4

While Paul Weller established himself as a solo artist in 1991, he first rose to prominence as the frontman to this "mod revival" band, whose hits included "Town Called Malice" and "Going Underground."

The Jam

5

Pink Floyd's notable 1972 documentary film featured a live performance at an amphitheater in what historical town-city?

Pompeii

6

Paul McCartney has a flower in his mouth on the cover of this 1973 album that produced "My Love."

Red Rose Speedway

7

This 1979 track is considered to be the first commercially successful rap song.

Sugarhill Gang - Rapper’s Delight

8

This rapper, best known for 1980’s “The Breaks,” was the first to release a commercially successful rap song that incorporated a hook/chorus.

Kurtis Blow

9

What lost household item is Jimmy Buffett "searching for" in Margaritaville?

Due to improved sales tracking information, albums (including, for example, the last eight released by Eminem) frequently debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, but what artist was the first to accomplish this feat with Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy in 1975?

Elton John

12

What pop music group scored hits in the United States during the 1970s with "Saturday Night," "Money Honey," and "You Made Me Believe in Magic"? They were "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh" and not from a place like San Francisco, Tampa, Norfolk, Monterey, Mobile, or the like (though they were named after a small city in Michigan—apparently randomly).

Bay City Rollers

13

While best known as a founding member and vocalist of one of rock's most influential bands, Lou Reed released what infamously odd album in 1975 as a solo artist? The album was so unlistenable that some fans still maintain it was a joke.

Metal Machine Music

14

Only one Sesame Street song has been a hit single. Name the song that rose to #16 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1970.

Rubber Ducky

15

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson has said he was surprised when the press began referring to 1971's Aqualung as a concept album. In response, he conceived a piece that he later called "the mother of all concept albums," a 44-minute long song (44 seconds of which can be heard below) setting to music an "epic poem" credited on the album's sleeve to an 8-year-old schoolboy from St. Cleve named Gerald "Little Milton" Bostock. Name this 1972 album, which Anderson followed up in 2012 with a sequel subtitled What Ever Happened to Gerald Bostock?

Thick As A Brick

16

In 1973, a four-song double album loosely based on a single footnote from a book about the Hindu shashtras by Paramahansa Yogananda was recorded by a popular English progressive rock band. The world tour that followed the album's release is widely cited as a prime example of excess and self-indulgence in rock music in the 1970s, and ever-increasing dissatisfaction with the band's musical direction led to their keyboardist's first departure.

Yes, Tales From Topographic Oceans

17

Everybody, it's a 1973 song from Curtis Mayfield that shares its title with a 1970 book by Alvin and Heidi Toffler. The Tofflers defined the term as an accelerated rate of technological and social change that leaves people disconnected, stressed, and disoriented. What is the shared title?

Future Shock

18

In what city, site of a multi-act music festival that also included (among others) Bill Withers, the Spinners, and Miriam Makeba, was this photo of James Brown and his companions taken in 1974?

Kinshasa

19

He was the primary songwriter and one of the founding members of ounk outfit Black Flag. He was part of the group from 1976-86, and again for reunions in 2003 and 2013.

Greg Ginn

20

The name of what performer, an actual ordained minister since 1976, has been redacted from this LP cover?

Al Green

21

Before leaving to form the post-punk band Magazine in 1977, Howard Devoto was one of two singer-songwriters in what British band?

The Buzzcocks

22

For numerous good reasons (including a 1992 acoustic version and the song's inspiration), the classic rock and roll song "Layla" is associated with Eric Clapton, but the song was originally released not by Clapton as a solo artist, but by what band, for which he sang and played guitar?

Derek and the Dominos

23

What rock accomplishment did Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show sing about in 1972 and achieve on March 29, 1973?

They wanted to see their picture "on the cover of the Rolling Stone." The magazine met them at least halfway in 1973, running a cover drawing of the band with the caption, "What's-Their-Names Make the Cover."